


The Seventh Day

by Bananas45



Category: B: The Beginning (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, Heavy Angst, M/M, a tag I never thought I'd use
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-20
Updated: 2018-07-20
Packaged: 2019-06-13 13:48:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,801
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15366006
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bananas45/pseuds/Bananas45
Summary: The apocalypse doesn’t come with a bang. It simmers on the side of news channels and public notices until it boils over one dreamy day in September.





	The Seventh Day

**Author's Note:**

> I'll be honest. I have a phobia level fear of Zombies...So I haven't had the guts to edit this.   
> It nagged at me for ages and ages to the point where I thought that writing it would be much easier than thinking about it. 
> 
> It took a lot. 
> 
> It was quite painful. 
> 
> but I am free now. 
> 
> This is probably incomprehensible because I wrote it in a state of fear But I think facing your fears is a type of therapy or something?

The apocalypse doesn’t come with a bang. It simmers on the side of news channels and public notices until it boils over one dreamy day in September.   
At first, they thought their jobs would mean an instant get out of jail free card for the whole apocalyptic experience. They did, after all, both work for the secret service but it blinded sided all of Cremona both top and bottom.   
So instead they decided they were unlikely to survive and held up in a barn outside the city limits with their car radio turned down low to hear if anything, anyone was left.  
From what they knew, which was very little, it was a virus. It took two or three days to show its symptoms but it was deadly and incredibly contagious. It made you mad- Minatsuki had made some dry little comment about zombies while Laica’s held up a finger as to not miss anything- before it turned your whole body against you and you died in a bloody and painful mess.   
By day 2 of what Laica liked to call ‘the actual apocalypse’ which was when everything stopped being a crisis and actually started to be fact, they had quarantined the whole of the central city island. Every bridge was cordoned off, with a military blockade that was impenetrable. Minatsuki had perked up though, a little glow of hope in his bright blue eyes.   
“We’re part of the military” He says. “They’ll let us through”   
So they set off back towards the city they abandoned with a machine gun and half a tank of petrol, along winding mountain roads that show a countryside that looks completely unaffected.   
“Do you think it’s the whole world?” Laica asks, if only to make conversation. If only to ease the thrumming tension between them.   
“Probably...two days is a long time. People travel even when they’re sick” He mumbles against the glass.   
“Do you think we have it?”   
Minatsuki yawns and shrugs.   
“Doubt it” He says. “I think we’d know by now”   
They hadn’t seen anyone in two days now but they knew the city would be a whole different game.   
“You’re very calm” Laica says, voice even, although he’s terrified.   
Minatsuki laughs. “I came out into the wilderness to die...and now I’m back, a la jesus”   
“I don’t think he went into the wilderness to die”   
“It was a weak analogy” Minatsuki concedes.   
“It would be more accurate if-”   
“Laica!”   
Something bolts out in front of them and they hit it full force, throwing them both forward and against the dashboard.   
The silence is punctuated by the tick of the engine and Laica comes to with a jolt of terror.   
“We should check” Minatsuki sounds frazzled but not hurt. That’s a relief.   
“It was a deer” Laica mumbles but he opens the door anyway. Minatsuki gives him a incredulous glare.  
“Careful” Minatsuki snaps.   
Laica moves slowly in the dying light. The sun has begun to give out on them and the street lamps are yet to switch on. They’re on the outskirts, beside a garage that looks as dead as the world around it. Beyond them the city looms. Laica clenches his teeth and holds the hem off his shirt over his mouth, just in case.   
“Anything?” He hears Minatsuki call from the car. He doesn’t answer, he’s a little too scared to answer. He comes round and steps back once he sees the crumpled but very much alive body infront of him. It groans and sits up, heaving in a sigh.   
“Laica?”   
“We hit someone” He shouts. “Don’t come-”   
it’s useless because Minatsuki’s at his side in seconds.   
“Fuck” He breathes.   
Laica nods.   
The body twitches and convulses. There is something inhuman about it’s jangled limbs, something that sets Laica’s teeth on edge.   
“We should go” Laica says although he’s still staring.   
“Do you think...” Minatsuki trails off, seemingly answering his own question as his face distorts with disgust. “That’s horrible”   
When Laica had been informed of a virus that sent you mad, he didn’t expect it to be so gut wrenching but looking now he thinks this isn’t something you fight, this is no war and if it had been, Laica suspects they’d already lost.   
“Should we...”   
The man- if you could call him that- wretches up blood and stares at them with unseeing eyes. Laica turns.   
“Don’t waste the bullets” Laica manages.   
They climb back inside the car and within seconds realise there is a problem. The car moves as though something is hauling it over boulders.   
“It’s the tire” Laica sighs and they both get out to inspect.  
They spend the rest of the evening hauling the car to that dead garage. 

Day three is spent repairing the car. The radio is still playing tunes and giving reports from some far of place that promises that this isn’t the whole world. But it is their whole world and it fucking sucks.  
Minatsuki watches the body they ran over with a hawk like intensity.   
“Do you think he’s dead?”   
The midday sun beats down and the heat makes the highway horizon shimmer. Laica swallows against a dry throat as he slots the knew wheel into place. He gave up on his dignity and his shirt after an hour or so and ignored Minatsuki’s lingering gaze and comment about how he’d seen a porno start this way.   
He didn’t quite understand Minatsuki’s optimism in the face of it all. In Fact it was starting to become unnerving.   
A sweat bead trickles down his taunt forearm as he screws the wheel back into place with stolen bolts for their stolen wheel.   
“There is shop over there” Minatsuki says. “I’ll get food”   
“Be careful” Laica says with a grunt.   
But he’s gone.   
Laica thinks off them, separated and in enemy territory (He’s started calling it that, it makes it easier to cope with, he’s from the military after all) and suddenly his chest is heavy with the thought that Minatsuki could be in there alone, maybe fighting, maybe already infected. The fear turns from a buzz to a bass drum and suddenly he’s on his feet and pushing open the white cracked paint door of the convenience store.   
“Min-”   
There is a gunshot.  
“It’s fine” Minatsuki says. “They’re dead. They weren’t really alive though...but I wanted to make sure”   
Laica nods a little dumbly and watches Minatsuki slug some water back.   
“Did you check the seal?” He realises how frantic he sounds. Minatsuki’s eyes widen.   
“OH my god, Laica!” He shouts before grinning “Yes, I did.”   
Laica closes his eyes and step over the bloodied body of the shop owner, foaming at the mouth and bleeding from the eyes. He wishes, for a moment, that he were stuck at the end of the world with anyone but Minatsuki.  
“There is a pay phone outside” Minatsuki informs him. “I checked the line. We should make contact...Maybe someone can get us out”   
Laica nods and vaults the desk behind the cashier and empties it of change.   
“Someone took the notes” Laica muses.   
“Yeah, you’re looking at him” Minatsuki says, hand running along the liquor shelf.   
“Leave it” Laica snaps, already heading for the door.   
Outside feels hotter than before but maybe it’s just being away from the body, already seeming to decompose back in there.   
“Who will you call?” Minatsuki asks.  
“Kamui...Quinn” Laica answers, already punching in numbers and feeding coins as he balancing the phone on his shoulder with the other hand. “Someone will answer”   
It doesn’t go to plan. Kamui does answer but he’s a mess. Everything is a mess.   
“Anarchy, Laica” Kamui shouts down the line, though it’s almost impossible to hear for all the noise behind him. “We’ve all been held up in the Palace for days now, the army in the city are all-” There is a bang. “We don’t know-”   
“Kamui, Kamui, Where’s Gilbert-” Laica presses his forehead to the glass.   
Kamui sounds distracted as he answers. “I uh, I don’t know. I think he got out. Yeah, he’s on one of the Northern islands but listen Laica, they’ve put up walls along the bridges, the city is left for dead. We can’t get out”   
Laica slams a hand on the plastic glass, tinged a sickly pink and Minatsuki gives him a look.   
“Fuck...” He whispers. “Is...” He can’t quite bring himself to ask. “Is the King still alive?”   
“He took ill a few nights ago. This thing spreads like wildfire, Laica, you have no idea.”   
“I need Gilbert’s number”   
There is shouting and panic, gunfire and Kamui coughing, hacking. Laica squeezes his eyes shut.   
“Kamui! Give me Gilbert’s number”   
There is a pause.   
“Right...Yeah. Do you- do you have something handy”   
Minatsuki pulls a pen out and holds out the long line of his wrist for Laica.   
“0039”   
He cradles Minatsuki’s wrist and the skin on skin is jarring. He doesn’t remember the last time he touched anyone but he scrawls it down anyway. By the end of the call Kamui sounds exhausted and hysterical and Laica hangs up with the sickening feeling that would be the last time they spoke.   
Minatsuki looks shocked though, sobered for the first time and Laica swallows back sickness.   
“We’re fucked aren’t we” He whispers, face slightly devastated.   
“Let me call Gilbert”   
The phone rings out the first time and he redails with venom in his fingertips and barely restrained terror in his breathes.   
“Pick up, Pick up damnit” He snarls.   
“Hello-”   
“Gilbert”   
“Laica. You’re alive” He sounds mildly surprised. “Where are you?”   
“About twenty minutes outside of the city”   
Gilbert breathes in through his teeth.   
“I’ve lost contact with most of Market Maker” He says. “I’ve been trying to reach everyone. Where did you go? Where’s Minatsuki”   
Laica pauses, eyes doing a once over on Minatsuki, who takes a lazy drag from a cigarette and tilts his head to ask what's up.   
“He’s with me” Laica says finally.   
“Good” Gilbert practically purrs.   
“Look” Laica pauses, knuckles drumming on the top of the phone box. “We need a way out Gilbert”   
“Yes, I can imagine you do. They’re planning to blow the bridges to the main city you know”   
Minatsuki reacts only to Laica’s reaction, the sudden tenderness in his shoulders that can only mean fear, bone deep fear and nothing else.   
“Why? Is it contained?” Laica asks, though it’s almost begging now.   
Gilbert takes a breath in.   
“I think that’s above your security clearance, my dear”   
“What’s happening out there Gilbert!”   
There is a silent pause and for a horrible moment Laica worries Gilbert has hung up.   
“Pass me onto Minatsuki if you’re going to act like that”   
“I-I’m sorry” Laica says watching as Minatsuki leans closer to listen in. Laica moves the reciever between them to help.   
“I have a favour to ask...If I’m to help get you out, which I hope you know, is going to be very cumbersome”   
Laica presses a thumb into his aching temple.   
“Fine”   
“The virus, should, only affect the city because it came from the city” He pauses and talks to someone and it makes Laica’s blood boil that their lives are now firmly stuck in this man's hand. “Do you know Jaula Blanca?”   
Laica’s brow knits and he opens his mouth but Minatsuki nods instead, an almost guilty look flashing across his face.   
“The institute on the mountain” Minatsuki supplies.   
“Indeed, Minatsuki. We were doing experiments”   
“We-” Laica tries.   
“I was involved, Minatsuki oversaw the security for a brief time-”   
“A very brief time” MInatsuki interjects.   
Gilbert laughs. “The experiments went wrong, we created something we couldn’t contain and...”   
“What were you trying to create?” Laica presses.   
“Does that concern you, Laica?” Gilbert asks, voice soft. “The point is it went wrong but there is a boy, still in the institute and he-” Gilbert pauses like he doesn’t know how to explain it. “He’s immune but he no use stuck and starving in a cage-”   
“A cage?” Minatsuki says.   
“Bring him to me” Gilbert says slowly. “And I can get you both to safety. You have until Saturday, that’s when they’ll blow the bridges. Come to the main blockade by then and-”   
It’s cut off, the time runs out and Laica hauls the receiver off the wall with a cry of frustration.   
Minatsuki stands, leg hooked over the other as he leans against the crumbling brick.   
“Do we do as he says?”   
Laica takes a moment and flicks a strand of hair out his face.   
“Yeah...We do as he says” 

Day four is uneventful yet somehow also terrifying. The city is chaos but it’s so much chaos that no one watches the car speed through the fire lit streets. You couldn’t, at speed, tell the difference between the infected and the not infected. Sirens wailed as police did their best to contain carnage that was uncontainable.   
“Do you think they know?” Minatsuki’s head is leant against the window of the glass. “About the bridges?”   
“They’re the police” Laica snarls. “We never tell them anything”   
“I just think I would have given up...if I knew” Minatsuki murmurs.   
To Laica, it seemed as though they had already.   
That night they stop in their old neighbourhood. The penthouse flat Minatsuki once called home is a burnt out shell and people stream down the marble steps looting everything they can get their hands on.   
They find a broken down door on the 7th floor and check for anyone. It’s empty and with nervous half steps they settle on the floor. The window offers a view to the city, lit with flares and flames, alive with screams and sirens, the sound of retching and the smell of fear.   
The street light and bright red of the flares, the occasional flash of a helicopters pure white light illuminates the space between them.   
The silence offers an uneasy peace between them both. Minatsuki looks out the window, tongue resting on his lip as his eyes flutter.   
“The water runs...” Laica says softly. It’s intimate and warm, filled with terrified energy and a out of place need for comfort.   
“I don’t want to shower” Minatsuki’s eyes close and Laica watches the tear trip out from between his long lashes.   
“Then just let me” Laica says and though it makes little sense, Minatsuki nods and unbuttons his shirt.   
Laica gets a towel from the bathroom and gently wets it. When he comes back through Minatsuki is still staring out at the world, lips red from tears and eyes distant. He shifts as Laica sits beside him. His hair has curled from sweat and rain and it hangs in soft waves and single curled strands around his cheeks and the nape of his neck as Laica drags the warm clothes across his skin. Minatsuki sighs, soft and tense into the air as he moves his hair to gives Laica more room. Laica takes away the sweat and the grime with a clinical care that just manages to mask his desire. Minatsuki tilts his neck back and Laica lets damp fingers follow the path off the water droplets.   
“There” He whispers and Minatsuki meets his eyes. They’re molten in the dim light, somehow still so blue yet so warm. Laica thinks of all the could be’s between them, all the tension that has always rippled between and wants to lean forward, to finally act on whatever this is because god knows there might not be another chance but he doesn’t, he stands and rings the towell out.   
“We leave for Jaula Blanca before sunrise”   
“It’s another day's drive at best” Minatsuki says, curling up on the floor and looking up at Laica.   
Another day. They’d have the boy by the evening, another drive back to the city and another to get to the bridge. It would be tight. 

Leaving the city is a blessed relief. A man, screaming and frothing at the mouth begs them to pull over and give him a lift. Laica watches the revulsion on Minatsuki’s face.   
People become less frequent the further they move into the mountains and by nightfall, Jaula Blanca looms like a huge beast of them.   
“We should be careful” Minatsuki says. “It could be nasty in here”   
Laica nods his agreement and they leave the car at the gates.   
Every step they take is loaded, every swing of the machine gun to check the space, every fall and snap of twigs but the place is only full of corpses. Mangled and decomposing.   
They move past blood stained operating theatre after blood stained operating theatre. Empty cantines and ghostly dormitories. Laica swallows back crippling fear. They find a cell, padded and locked and open it with no regard for safety and every regard for how little time they have.   
It launches at Minatsuki, pinning him to the ground and locking an arm around his neck.   
“Who are you?” The shadows cover everything except it’s dirty feet.   
“We’re here for a boy-”   
“Why?”   
“We’re looking to get him off the island” Laica tries, watching as Minatsuki struggles.   
“Off?” He steps forward, letting Minatsuki go and stepping into the light. The boy can only be a teen. Thin and scared looking, he glances between the two of them like a fox trapped by hounds.   
“What’s your name?” Minatsuki tries.   
“Koku” He answers.   
Laica gives him a once over. “What happened here?”   
Koku shakes his head. “I don’t...I don’t know...They got me a few months ago, dragged me back here and-”   
“We should go”   
“Will you take me back to them?” Koku sounds resigned, eyes sad and dejected.   
Laica sees no point in lying.   
“Yes”   
Minatsuki grabs cuffs from the next room and with barely a fight they lead the boy back, barefoot and trembling, to the car.  
He gets in the back, hands bound and instantly curls up.   
“Hey, Kid” Laica snaps. “How come you’re fine?”   
Koku blinks his eyes open. “Dunno...something to do with my blood”   
“Reggies” Minatsuki puts the car into reverse. “That’s what they called them”  
Laica gives Minatsuki an accusing glare, eyes narrowed as he almost asks how Minatsuki knows so much.   
“Yeah” Koku picks the dirt out his fingernails.  
“And why you?” Laica asks, closing his eyes and leaning back against the seat.   
“I don’t know” Koku says softly. “I wish I knew”   
There is a pause.   
“They’ll kill me you know”   
Laica pretends to be asleep and lets Minatsuki answer with a soft.   
“You don’t know that” 

Day six brings the world crumbling down. They avoid the city and head round through the countryside. It takes longer but takes less risks. Minatsuki and him swap driving and Minatsuki stays asleep for the duration of the journey.   
“You alive back there?” Laica glances in the rear view and stares as the boy slowly eats his way through their rations. Laica has to admit, considering his hands are bound, the boy does a good job.   
“So are you secret service?” Koku asks.   
“Yeah” Laica answers.  
“That’s why they sent you?” He sniffs and crosses his legs.   
He almost tells the boy the truth but Minatsuki is bolt awake.  
“Stop the car”   
Laica does.   
He watches Minatsuki throw open the door and wretch by the side of the road. Feels a crippling and sudden despair clamp around him. Koku is watching too, his eyes wide.   
“Close the door and drive” He says.   
“No” Laica answers.   
“Please!” It’s frantic “He’s your friend, you don’t want to see this-”   
“No!” Laica shouts and the boy shrinks back.   
Minatsuki comes back to the car and sits down, his nose dripping blood as he stares straight ahead.   
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Laica asks, voice stone cold. Minatsuki turns to him, an exhausted, fearful look in his eye.   
“What good would it have done?”   
Laica bites his lip and clenches the steering wheel.   
“Fuck”   
Minatsuki rubs the blood off his nose and Laica’s ears ring.   
“When?”   
Minatsuki looks away.   
“I don’t know...I’ve felt off for a while” His voice is quieter now but it perks up. “There is a beach house close by. It’ll probably be abandoned...I used to drive past it-”   
“Stop, Stop fucking pretending like this is okay. Just fucking stop it Minatsuki” Laica barks. “None of this is okay. None of this is fucking okay so don’t joke with me...” He snarls. “You don’t have the right to joke with me”   
“Christ” Minatsuki sighs. “I’m dying and it’s still all about you-”   
“Minatsuki” Laica realises he’s about to cry and his voice is pleading. They lock eyes and he watches the sickly pain play out across Minatsuki face. How the fuck hadn’t he noticed? He turns to Koku “How long does he have?”   
Minatsuki coughs into his palm violently and Laica ignores how much blood comes with it.   
“He’ll be fine tonight...Tomorrow...It’ll be bad tomorrow” Koku looks sick.   
“Aren’t you like some kind of...cure or something?” Laica mutters.   
“Not...not like that” He says softly, voice tight with guilt as he glances between Minatsuki and Laica.   
“Right...Fuck” He slams his hand of the wheel.   
Minatsuki closes his eyes.   
“Tomorrow, before you set off, just-” He pauses and now he does sound serious.   
Laica feels his heart stop.   
“You selfish bastard-”   
“Please” Minatsuki says, voice shaking and then his nose wrinkles like he’s enraged. “If he doesn't” he turns to Koku “Will you?”   
Koku nods frantically.  
“I really...I really don’t want to go like the rest of them” Minatsuki laughs. “And if you bring me Gilbert wont let you through”   
Laica knows that’s true and he grits his teeth.   
They stop for the night and set up a small fire beside the car. Koku watches Minatsuki carefully and with trepidation in his eyes.   
“You’re doing very well” he says softly.   
Minatsuki grins “Good because I feel like shit...How long before the” He motions “Mouth foaming and bleeding from the eyes”   
“You have a day at least” Koku ducks his head down and Laica stands .   
“Going for a walk” He snaps and ignores Minatsuki’s eyes on him.   
Koku comes after him.   
“KId-”   
Koku looks at him, eyes soft in the moonlit night and then looks away. “I’m going back to the car...”   
There is something poignant about it, Empathetic and naive that they boy they were going to kill is going to let them have their last night together.   
Minatsuki is staring into the fire when Laica comes back.   
“Short walk” He mutters.   
“I’m going to talk now and you’re just going to listen” Laica snaps suddenly and Minatsuki looks up.   
“Alright”   
The fire crackles between them and Laica closes his eyes.   
“I love you, I’ve always loved you” He grits his teeth “I think you’ve known that for a while now.”   
Minatsuki nods a little and Laica curses the fact that they’re confessing their love over three meters of quarantine space.   
“I want you to know that I...I’m sorry” He closes his eyes to stop from watching Minatsuki cry. “I’m sorry I never acted and I’m sorry for being so cold” He steps closer. “I can’t really think of a world without you” He sits down and Minatsuki lets his hair cover his tears. “As cheesy as it sounds I think I’d rather die” He hates how cold he still sounds, hates how even his voice is regardless of how much of a mess his head is in. Fear pulses through him like some sick drum beat. “So that’s why when I do this, I want you to know it’s not your fault”   
Minatsuki’s head whips round.   
“Do what-”   
Laica catches his lips and Minatsuki lets out a cry of despair as Laica drags his tongue along the seam of his lips. His fists beat against Laica’s chest as he sobs and Laica holds both his shaking hands in his own as he pulls back.   
“You idiot!!” Minatsuki screams. “You idiot! Why would you-”   
“Because I love you” Laica murmurs.   
“And you think I don’t!” Minatsuki shouts, running a hand through his hair as he shudders and coughs on his tears. “Do you ever think of anyone except yourself Laica!”   
“Do you?” Lacia shouts back and Minatsuki flinches. “You’ll be dead by tomorrow! What does it matter to you?”   
“Because I wanted you to live!” Minatsuki whispers, like he’s had all the energy sucked out of him.   
“And I told you” Laica cups his cheek. “I don’t want to”   
Minatsuki’s tare a tinged red and it’s depressing to watch someone as proud and strong as Minatsuki in a state like this.   
“You’re a fool, Laica” He whispers and then they’re kissing again, fueled by desperation and with a clock that ticks over them, the two try to spend their last night shoving a lifetime of emotion into seven hours.   
They barely speak. Laica finds it to hard to face the fact that this really is it and so he takes Minatsuki apart as though he’d be able to do the same tomorrow and the day after and the day after that.   
WIth their clothes as a bed and the dying fire as the only light he listens as Minatsuki begs.   
“Please, Laica” He whispers.   
“I’ll hurt you” Laica says, fingers questing over unexplored skin as he tries to imagine Minatsuki with blood around his nose and fear in his eyes. His laugh is bitter.   
“I don’t really think that matters anymore”   
So Laica takes him, as soft and as gently as he can and revels in the feeling of Minatsuki’s nails in his back and pants in his ear. With crickets as their only witness they whisper words into eachothers skin that, in the long run, don’t matter because this is it.   
Laica watches Minatsuki sleep as the sun rise and finds an odd, sick feeling form in his stomach at the idea that Minatsuki would sleep when he’s about to spend a whole lot more time doing that. HE purses his lips as his nose tingles.   
The fair hairs on Minatsuki’s forearms are raised in the morning dew and his hair splays out across the green grass. He would look like an angel, except for the greyness in his skin and the wheeze in his breath, the blood that trickles out his nose and the side of his mouth as he chokes a little.   
It’s surprisingly easy just to wrap his hand around the fair throat.   
Minatsuki barely struggles. 

They drive in silence, Koku in the passenger seat now with head pressed against the cold, wet glass.   
“Did you love him?” He says softly.   
“Yeah” Laica watches the road blur. “Yeah I did”   
Koku shifts just a little.   
“Did he know?”   
Laica takes a breath.   
“Not like he should have” 

Koku knows. He knows something is wrong but he doesn’t say anything as Laica fills up the petrol.   
“Do you feel okay?”   
“Yeah...I feel fine” He answers. That’s the problem, he feels absolutely fine. Laica feels healthy.   
“Did you” Koku struggles to find the words. “Expect not to?”   
Laica turns, skin tingling with annoyance.   
“I fucked him” He snaps and Koku’s face sets at the tone.   
“Right.” He mutters and heads back to the car. 

A whole day passes and Laica doesn’t have so much as a headache.   
“What’s wrong with me?” He snarls as they approach the meeting place. “Shouldn’t I be...Shouldn’t I be ill-”   
“Minatsuki-”   
“Hid it” Laica snaps. “I don’t feel anything”   
“Then maybe you’re like me” Koku murmurs, curling his feet up and leaning on his knees.   
“Don’t even joke” Laica says. 

The exchange goes to plan. Koku is bundled off in a four car convey and only glances back once at Laica before someone tasers him.   
Gilbert smiles.   
“Where’s-”   
“He couldn’t make it”   
Gilbert hums a little and breathes a heavy sight.   
“Pity, he was such a asset”   
“Don’t” Laica says. There is a pause and Gilbert smiles, his face pulled down like he’s sad but his eyes full of mirth.   
“Funny, with how close the two of you were, that you haven’t been infected”   
Laica closes his eyes as the realisation begins to wash over him. Slow and gentle like the tick of the engine of their car.   
“You wouldn’t have let me in here if you’d had even the slightest doubt...” Laica trails off, suddenly feeling sick.   
“You’re right” Gilbert smiles. “I wouldn’t have.”   
“Is that why you sent me out there?” His voice doesn’t sound like his own.   
Gilbert bites his lip. “There was no way you could have made it back unless you were-”   
“Fuck” Laica feels his chest constrict. 

The seventh day comes and goes and Laica sits in a quarantine room. He sits and feels nothing except the steady, heavy beat of his heart.

**Author's Note:**

> sorry.


End file.
